


A Delicious Torment

by veronicaluv



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-26
Updated: 2014-01-26
Packaged: 2018-01-10 01:50:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,327
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1153339
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/veronicaluv/pseuds/veronicaluv
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steve and Danny are finally on the same page, but good timing is still not on their side.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Delicious Torment

**Author's Note:**

> Not sure where this falls in canon - Gabby is in the picture and Malia is still with us.

_Thou are to me a delicious torment._  
Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Okay, if we're really going to do this, we're going to need ground rules."

"Ground rules, Daniel? Seriously?"

"Yes, seriously." Danny pressed his hand against the small of Steve's back, forcing Steve's hips forward and consequently putting more weight on Danny as he leaned his shoulders against the wall. "Too many ways this can go bad."

Steve lowered his head until his forehead met Danny's, his breath coming in shallow gasps. "Jesus, it hasn't even had a chance to go _good_ yet."

In response, Danny tilted his head and placed his mouth against Steve's, an open invitation that Steve couldn't turn down. He kissed Danny hard--their third kiss, but who was counting, just because the first two had left him breathless--as his left hand tugged Danny's pale yellow dress shirt out of his trousers.

"See?" Steve panted after the kiss broke. "No rules. Just us."

He slid his palms beneath the fabric of Danny's loosened shirt, just above his belt, warm, taut skin flinching slightly at the touch of Steve's cool fingers against his flesh. Danny was trying to return the favor, tugging at the collar of Steve's thin cotton shirt, placing his mouth right where Steve needed it to be.

Damn it, Steve _knew_ it'd be like this. He knew that once he and Danny put aside all the crap and the arguments and the outside considerations that had kept them from acting on what had been between them from the start, everything would fall into place.

Like this--just like this, here, now, everything around them and not a damn thing stopping them. It was after midnight, everyone else had gone home, and Steve had Danny all to himself in Steve's office. Of course, at the moment, he didn't care if every officer in HPD showed up in the doorway and demanded they stop, he wouldn't. He never would. Danny was finally his, all his, and he was keeping him forever.

All of that was going through his head in a kind of swimming haze, because Danny's hands were at Steve's belt, leather sliding against leather because Danny had already gotten that far while Steve was picking out china and wondering if tattooing "Danno" over his heart was a little over the top.

"Rule number one," Danny muttered against Steve's shoulder--his bare shoulder, because Danny had stretched the collar of his shirt so far that Steve knew it had torn and he didn't give a fuck. "No sex in the office."

"Yeah, fine, no, wait, what?" Steve pulled back just far enough to frown directly into Danny's eyes. He was sure he didn't just hear what he thought he'd heard, not with Danny's fingers playing with the snap of his jeans.

"You heard me, I said no sex in the office." Danny's eyes were bright--hell, they were _laughing_ at Steve, practically daring him to object--which Steve promptly did.

"How can you say that's a rule when all I can think about is how fast I can get you naked on my couch?"

"I can say that because--really? You're actually thinking that?"

"Well, I _was_ , but according to you, that's against the rules."

"No, technically, only sex is against the rules. Nudity is okay."

Steve shut his eyes. God, all the things he loved about Danny were the same things that made him want to tear his hair own out, but given that this was Danny, there was more, probably a lot more, to this story. Resigning himself to a side trip into Danny World, Steve placed his hands on Danny's hips, but kept them under his shirttails, just in case the list of rules was a short one. He didn't hold out a lot of hope, but he was touching Danny's skin, so it was a compromise of sorts.

"Okay," Steve sighed, "let's have them."

Danny's eyes widened. "What, now? All of them?"

"Yes, Danny, yes, all of them. First, tell me all the places we _can't_ have sex. The office is out, copy that. What else, the car? My truck? I know the beach is probably out, knowing as we all do how you feel about sand. Oh, yeah, and probably--"

"Hey, hey, hey! Don't get ahead of yourself there, Copernicus, the only place that's off limits is the office. Jesus, what do you think I am, a monk? I'd even consider the beach, as long as appropriate safety measures are taken beforehand."

Danny's fingers finally popped the snap on Steve's jeans and Steve gasped, involuntarily bucking against Danny's searching palm. Sweat trickled down Steve's spine as he tried to keep his mind on task and not on immediately breaking rule number one.

"Okay, what else?"

"What else what?"

"Damn it, Danny--"

"You know, you should have that tattooed somewhere, then all you'd have to do is point. Save a lot of wear on the vocal chords."

"Danny--"

"All right, all right, rule number two. No public displays of affection."

Steve inhaled sharply. That one caught him off guard. Danny was openly affectionate with everyone, so why wasn't he comfortable with Steve that same way? Chalking it up to Danny's very specific instincts regarding professionalism, Steve found himself nodding, even though he didn't like it.

"Good, okay, rule three. We keep this under wraps for a while."

"Keep under wraps? You mean--"

"We don't tell anyone, until we're ready."

Steve didn't like that one at all. Chin and Kono deserved to know, so did their families. This wasn't a just a friendly fuck once in a while, this wasn't a casual thing, this was--

"No," Steve said. "This is forever, right?"

"Yes, Steven, most definitely forever." Danny slid his fingertip inside the elasticized edge of Steve's underwear. "That's why we can afford to wait."

"Wait for what? Danny, not ten minutes ago I told you how I feel about you--"

"And I feel the same way, okay? Let's just enjoy being the only two people in the world who know about this. Let's," he slipped his thumbs into Steve's belt loops, giving them a swift, downward tug, "have this one thing just between us, just for a little while."

With his jeans now halfway down his hips, Steve was pretty sure he'd agree to anything Danny wanted. What he couldn't figure out was why Danny was single-mindedly trying to undress Steve when he'd already imposed a no sex in the office rule.

The kissing wasn't helping. Danny had one hand buried in Steve's hair, holding him in place as they exchanged kisses that were rapidly approaching obscene. Steve was on fire, inside and out, and Danny didn't seem to be in any better shape. Steve had most of Danny's shirt unbuttoned and was about to strip it off those impossibly broad shoulders when he stopped, lifting his head and breathing hard through his nose. He grabbed Danny's wrists and pinned them to the wall near Danny's head, then leaned until his lips brushed against Danny's ear.

"Rule number one is going to get shot to hell in about ten seconds if we don't stop. Five if you do that thing with your tongue again."

"Liked that, did you?" Danny's voice had little substance to it, and Steve decided to up the ante. With Danny still restrained, Steve let his weight rest against him, the angle making everything align in a way that neither of them could doubt their desire for each other. "God," Danny grunted, "you play dirty."

"Six seconds, Danny. We either stop or break your damn rule number one right here."

"Right, right." Danny cleared his throat and pulled his wrists from Steve's slack grip. He placed his hands on Steve's hips but instead of pulling him close, he helped Steve straighten up, taking a step to the side so that they were both clear of the wall. Even then, Steve wasn't sure they were going to make it out of the office. In the dim light, it was easy to see that Danny looked like Steve's every secret kink, with his blond hair mussed up, shirt hanging off his shoulders, and lips swollen from Steve's kisses. 

Afraid he wouldn't be able to keep his hands to himself, Steve turned away, refastening his jeans and pulling his ruined shirt back into some kind of normal shape. He thought about taking it off and grabbing a fresh one from his drawer, but decided against it. Anyone looking at Steve in that shirt would know that he'd been fooling around, and he was okay with that. Plus, since it was Danny who'd manhandled the shirt into rag status in the first place, Steve really didn't want to take it off any time soon.

When he turned back, Danny was almost as presentable as he was. Shirt re-buttoned and tucked back into his trousers, hair palmed back into place, Danny was swiping the side of his mouth with the back of his hand, a thoroughly sexy move that made Steve doubt his ability ever walk straight again. 

"Now what?" Steve asked. He took a couple of steps backward until his butt hit his desk. Leaning against it, he stretched out his legs and folded his arms over his chest. The question was semi-rhetorical and not really what he meant to say at all. No, what he really wanted to say was _where_ and _I'm driving_.

And on this count, Danny was indeed on the same page. "Your place. You're driving."

***

When he first heard the phone, Steve's primary instinct was to find it and throw it across the room hard enough to kill it. Then he realized it wasn't a ring tone he used, that it was Danny's phone, and that Danny probably wouldn't appreciate the gesture.

"Phone, Danny," Steve mumbled. He reached for the blanket-wrapped bundle beside him and pulled it close against his chest. 

"Mmph," was the initial response from the depths of the blanket. "Gonna have to let me go."

"No, don't think so." Steve buried his face in the folds of the blanket, approximately where he thought Danny's neck would be.

A strong arm wove its way out of the sheets and shoved Steve's thigh. "Move, you big hump, I need to get up."

Regretfully, Steve unwound himself from the now wriggling lump of blanket and fell onto his back, turning his head and slitting his eyes to watch as Danny fought through the many layers of fabric that covered him. By now the phone had stopped ringing, so by the time Danny was sitting up, bare-chested with the sheet and blankets pooled around his hips, Steve didn't care about the phone and decided that Danny shouldn't care, either. 

He started to reach for Danny but Danny was on the move, crawling over Steve with a lot of unnecessary body contact to get to the edge of the bed, a purely provocative move as far as Steve was concerned, since there was plenty of room on Danny's side of the bed to get out. Danny dragged the blanket with him, wrapping it around his waist and over his shoulder toga-style as he searched for his trousers, finding them draped over the mirror on top of Steve's dresser. He fished his phone out of the pocket and checked to see who called him, his face lighting up as he came back to bed.

"Who was it?" Steve asked. He didn't really care, unless it was Grace, but that wasn't Grace's ring tone. Besides, Danny had decided to crawl back over Steve, again forsaking actually walking around the bed to get to the space on the other side, where he curled his legs beneath him, still wearing his white cotton toga.

"An old friend of mine. Hang on, she left me a message."

Steve raised his arms and folded his fingers beneath his head on the pillow, frowning up at the ceiling as Danny retrieved his voice mail. Without looking at the clock next to the bed, he knew it was about seven a.m., which meant that he and Danny had maybe an hour before they had to actually think about getting up and starting their day. Unsurprisingly, Steve had a few ideas about how to spend that hour.

Where to start? Steve considered his options. The first time they'd made love, Steve had learned so much about Danny's body, about what made Danny laugh (ticklish spots to be exploited when necessary), what made Danny sigh (cuddling after sex, which had Steve falling even more deeply in love with the irritating bastard), and what made Danny writhe and swear like a sailor on shore leave because of what Steve was doing to him with his mouth and his hands (information now considered as classified as any black ops mission dossier). Danny was bossy, responsive, and generous in bed, just as he was in life, except that everything he said and did in that most intimate setting was bathed in the love that deepened the blue of his eyes every time he leaned in to kiss Steve.

"Hey, I'm talking to you." Danny's grumpy statement was accompanied by a sharp poke to Steve's ribcage. "Where'd you go?"

Steve smiled at him, a deliberately evil smile that had Danny looking at him with suspicion tinged with a healthy dose of anticipation. "What'd I miss?"

"That phone call? That was my friend, Melissa, we went through the academy together. She's here in town with a bunch of friends, wants to know if we can get together."

Steve kept his expression neutral, since he didn't want Danny to see the disappointment in his eyes. No way would he keep Danny from meeting up with an old friend, but he'd hoped they'd have more time to themselves today.

"I see that look," Danny said, reminding Steve that trying to fool Danny was next to impossible, "I haven't talked to her for years, no problem if you want me to ask for a rain check."

Steve sat up, knowing he was going to do the right thing and hating the idea at the same time. "No, you go ahead." He took Danny's hand and entwined their fingers. "Just--don't be gone too long, okay?"

Danny tightened his fingers and pulled, gently easing Steve toward him until he was close enough for a quick, hard kiss. "Listen to me closely, I am not an insensitive person. So as much as I love you for being cool about me meeting up with an old friend, I have no intentions of letting you out of my sight on a day that is arguably the first day of our honeymoon."

Steve blinked, then broke into a sloppy, besotted grin. "Did we get married and I didn't notice?"

"You bet your ass we did." Danny released him and, once more using Steve's long legs as a guide to climbing out of bed, he got to his feet, this time without his blanket toga. He held out his hand but had to wiggle his fingers to get Steve's attention, since a naked Danny standing in the middle of his--check that, _their_ \--bedroom was something Steve would never get tired of seeing. "C'mon. Shower first, then I'll call her back, see what we can arrange. Lunch, maybe, and _not_ at the Hilton, I'm sick of that place."

Steve took Danny's hand and hauled himself out of bed. "How about--"

"Don't even say Kamekona's, okay? Don't even think it. And oh, by the way? Did I mention we're taking this shower together?"

Steve let himself be yanked toward the bathroom, but just as they reached the doorway, he planted his feet and reeled Danny into his embrace. Danny immediately wound his arms around Steve's neck, his compact body so warm, fitting so perfectly against Steve's, that Steve wondered how he'd ever lived without this, promptly swearing to himself that he never would again.

Lowering his mouth until it brushed against Danny's, Steve spoke against Danny's parted lips. "Doing your part to save the planet, Danny?"

"Mmm," Danny's eyes drifted shut, "you smell good, you know that? How come you smell so good, even in the morning? Even _this_ morning?"

"I...geez, Danny," Steve started laughing, pressing his forehead to Danny's. "You are one strange guy, you know that?"

"Yeah, well," Danny circled his fingers around Steve's wrist, pulling him into the bathroom, "I'm your strange guy now, and don't you ever forget it."

 

***

Danny and Melissa had arranged to meet at the restaurant located off the lobby of her hotel. Steve was feeling about as good as he was going to, given that not only was he not home in bed with Danny, he was going to be spending the next couple of hours in the company of someone who'd known Danny longer than he had. His only consolation was that Danny had been open and relaxed on the drive to the hotel, recounting stories of his exploits at the academy, some of them including Melissa. If Steve had nursed any concerns that Danny and Melissa had been more than cadets together, they were put to rest because Danny flat out told him that he and Melissa had no such history together. 

As they walked through the lobby toward the restaurant, Steve decided to look on the bright side. With any luck, Melissa would have some great Danny stories, and as long as she hadn't committed any felonies that required the feds to sit at the next table, maybe he'd get more out of this lunch than an overpriced sandwich and a pile of greasy fries.

"There." Danny slapped Steve's abdomen with the back of his hand. "She's over there."

Danny waved and Steve saw a blond woman wave back. She was standing at the restaurant's entrance but when she saw Danny, she ran a few steps toward him until they met in a hug, Danny lifting her off her feet and making her laugh.

"God, Danny!" Melissa tucked her long hair behind her ear, grinning at Danny. "You look great! How do you like Hawaii? I can't believe you ended up here!"

"You and me both." Danny motioned Steve to step closer. "Mel, I want you to meet someone. This is my partner, Steve McGarrett. Steve, Melissa Monroe. It's still Monroe, right?"

Melissa nodded as she took Steve's outstretched hand. "Yeah, for now, I guess." She nudged Danny with her elbow, her eyes on Steve. "Maybe I'll get lucky here in Hawaii, huh?"

Danny waved his hand dismissively. "Hands off, girlfriend, this one's spoken for."

"Aw, damn." Melissa winked at Steve and he grinned back, relieved that they'd cleared that up. Danny herded them inside and they took a table, where Steve settled in to listen to two old friends catch up. With part of his attention listening in case their conversation got interesting--i.e. something about Danny that Steve could tease him about later--Steve ate his lunch and played third wheel, all the while reliving the event that had finally brought Danny Williams into his arms.

In his head, it'd always come out differently. Smoother, maybe even faintly romantic, a quiet moment between the two of them that naturally led into Steve confessing that Danny had captured his heart almost from the day they'd met. Not that Steve ever intended to use such flowery language--he expected he'd come up with something more, well, to the point. Something straightforward, something Danny would respect, and that Danny would, hopefully, return the sentiment.

Instead, it had started with an argument. A serious disagreement this time, one with some teeth to it. For once, they were equally pissed off at each other for taking what they both considered to be unnecessary chances on the job, and neither would concede the point that the other could be right. Chin and Kono had bailed after they'd all had dinner together, but Danny and Steve had hardly noticed, cleaning up the detritus of takeout boxes and soiled napkins and bickering as they went along. Finally, in an attempt to cool down and formulate an argument to prove to Danny that he couldn't yell at Steve for not waiting for backup when Danny himself had trouble with the concept, Steve had retreated to his office to get his keys. 

Unfortunately, he'd miscalculated how angry Danny was, something he'd figured out when Danny appeared, resuming their argument as if no time had passed. Standing in the doorway, arms crossed and head tilted, Danny seemed prepared to run down the entire list of Steve's transgressions against procedure, but Steve hardly heard him. Instead, he was suddenly reliving the action they'd experienced earlier that day, and all he could hear was the sound of shots fired coming through the door that Danny had just opened, all he could see was Danny going down behind a window, all he could feel was his world collapsing until a familiar blond head popped up and the words "I'm okay" had unlocked Steve's brain so that he could get back to the task at hand.

"And today," Danny was saying, "today, you decided to go up on the roof. Again, this is not unusual for you, since you seem to be possess the DNA of a mountain goat, among other members of the animal kingdom, but--"

"You scared me today."

The quiet words fell like pebbles into the midst of Danny's diatribe, disturbing his rhythm enough to stop him cold. He stared at Steve as he shoved his hands into his front pockets, rocking back on his heels.

"'Scuse me?"

"I saw you go down, Danny. I thought you'd been hit."

"Oh, so that makes it okay for to you go storming up a building like Spider-man without me to back you up?"

There it was, that damn tone of Danny's, the one that sent Steve's blood pressure sky high. Well, damn it, this time, Danny was going to understand exactly what Steve had gone through. He took a deep breath, prepared to sound like the civilized person Danny said he wasn't, but that's not what came out.

"Damn it, Danny!"

"Why are you yelling--"

"I thought I'd lost you today and it damn near killed me! _Fuck_!" Steve shut his eyes, then reopened them, steadying his voice. "Don't do that to me again."

His statement was met with total silence at first. Danny had a look on his face that was hard to read, part shock, part--satisfaction? It was hard to tell, but maybe there was something there that Steve had never seen before.

"So, tough guy," Danny said softly, "now you know how it feels."

Steve frowned at him. "How what feels?"

Taking a step forward, Danny removed his hands from his pockets and lowered his head for a brief moment, then looked Steve in the eyes. 

"How it feels to watch you put yourself in harm's way every single fucking day of my life." Danny shrugged. "Now you know how much it hurts."

_It hurts_. Those two words hit Steve like a punch in the stomach, and he had to swallow twice before he could speak again.

"I don't--Danny, you know I don't do anything that I don't think I can accomplish. I'm not a thrill seeker, I do it because it's my job. It's a calculated risk, based on what I know, what my strengths are."

"So what?"

"What the hell does that mean?"

"That means so what? Yes, I know you have this amazing skill set and yes, I know everything that you do is for the good of the job, but you know what? Doesn't make it any easier from where I stand."

Steve shook his head as if to clear his ears. Was Danny trying to tell him that he cared? Hell, Steve knew that, the devotion between them was no less real for never having been spoken. 

"You getting it now, genius?" Danny took another step in Steve's direction until there was only a foot of space between them. "What you felt today? That's what I live with every time you do something stupid, so don't be getting all pissy when the combat boot is on the other foot once in a while."

"Yeah, but Danny--"

"Okay, here it comes," Danny's hands flew upward, "McGarrett's magical reason why it's okay for you to be upset when I take some fire, whereas I just have to suck it up and pretend I'm okay with the crazy-ass stunts you pull."

That did it. Danny wasn't going to cut Steve any slack or take any responsibility for his own actions, and the combination of the day and the worry and the argument combined to make Steve careless.

"Reason, Danny? You want a reason why I'm upset? Okay, how about this one. How about I can't stand the thought of you ever being hurt or sick or hell, leaving fucking Hawaii, because I've been in love with you practically since the day we met! You wanted a reason? Well, congratulations, there it is."

Yeah, Steve thought as he reached for his iced tea, that wasn't exactly how he'd pictured that scene going down, but the results had been all he could've hoped for and more. Especially since for maybe the first time ever, Danny was sincerely, completely speechless. At first, Steve took Danny's silence as rejection, but then the next thing Steve knew, Danny was in his arms, his hand curved around Steve's nape as he pulled Steve down into a kiss that told Steve everything he needed to know.

Not that the kiss was the only form of communication Danny used. In between one kiss and another, Danny proceeded to tell Steve that he felt the same, that nothing was right in his life without Steve, and that every stupid mistake he'd made over the last year had been because he assumed that Steve would never, ever feel the same way. And all of it said in a tone of vague accusation, as if the time spent apart was all Steve's fault and he'd just been too slow to read the signals Danny claimed he'd been giving off. 

A quick glance at Danny and Melissa confirmed that they were still deep in remembrances, mostly about people Steve didn't care about. That left him free to enjoy both his club sandwich and the memory of shoving Danny against the wall, intent on kissing that ever-moving mouth into silence, then abruptly being side-railed by Danny's insistence on three totally useless rules that only the mind of Danny Williams could come up with.

Belatedly realizing that thoughts of kissing Danny was having an inappropriate effect on his body, Steve brought himself back to the present, just as Melissa was leaning confidingly toward Danny, her phone in her hand.

"Hey, uh, Danny," she said, "there's something I haven't told you."

Steve tensed, flashbacks to other happy reunions being ruined running through his head. A quick read of Melissa told him that she was nervous, but it was with anticipation, not fear. He and Danny shared a quick glance--the same idea apparently hitting Danny, based on the raised eyebrows--then Danny turned his attention back to Melissa.

"Okay," Danny said amiably, "spill it."

Melissa glanced at Steve, giving him a wink that did nothing to settle his nerves, then turned back to Danny.

"Dylan's here."

At first, Danny didn't move. It was like he was set in stone, he was so motionless, until he finally blinked and leaned slightly forward. 

"Dylan? He's here? In Hawaii?"

Melissa giggled, sweeping her hair off her face. Steve kept his eyes on Danny, because it was obvious that something was very, very wrong. Whoever this Dylan was, Danny was not happy to see him, despite Melissa's obvious excitement over what she'd expected to be a happy surprise.

"He just texted me, he's in the lobby, waiting for you." She reached across the table and nudged his shoulder. "Go on, go say hi."

Danny balled up his napkin and set it aside, then rose to his feet. Steve started to get up, but Danny held up his hand, indicating that Steve needed to stay where he was. Personally, Steve didn't think it was a good idea, given that Danny looked like he was being led to the gallows. But Steve obeyed anyway, meeting Danny's gaze and trying to convey his support. Danny seemed to get it, giving Steve a shaky nod before walking away from the table and out of the restaurant.

"So," Steve pushed aside his plate, "who's Dylan?"

Melissa turned to him, obviously startled by Steve's question. "Danny never told you about Dylan?"

Keeping his expression as neutral as possible, Steve shrugged. "Might have mentioned him, but fill me in anyway." It was an old trick, to make the perp believe you knew more than you really did.

_Not an interrogation, McGarrett._ Oh, yeah, right.

"Well, okay." Melissa took a long sip from the straw of her mai tai, then settled back in her chair. "Dylan's my brother, they met when Danny and I were in the academy. Man, talk about sparks flying, it was crazy there for a while. Then there was the whole thing with his parents when they moved in together--"

"Wait, wait, hang on." Steve was having trouble keeping up with the direction of Melissa's conversation. "They lived together?"

"Oh, yeah, totally, for almost a whole year. Danny's mom and dad were pretty upset at first--well, you've met Danny's parents, right?"

Steve was beginning to feel his stomach knot up. "Uh, no, not yet, they haven't made it out here."

Melissa rolled her eyes. "Oh, my God, they're so cute, they thought Danny and Dylan were moving too fast, you know?" She shook her head. "But you know Danny, he's so stubborn, right? And Dylan won them over, they really loved him toward the end. It's too bad, what happened."

All Steve could do was nod as he tried to get back his emotional balance. If he looked at it logically, there was nothing that Melissa was telling him that should upset him. Both he and Danny had been part of serious relationships in the past, and Steve knew better than to be jealous of Danny's romantic history. And while Steve had very strong feelings about Rachel, he'd moved past the jealousy phase long before he and Danny had admitted how they felt about each other. 

Melissa was obviously waiting for Steve to comment, her blue eyes wide and expectant. "Yeah? What happened?" Steve asked.

"Oh, my brother's such an idiot. He broke up with Danny after we graduated and it was, like, the saddest thing ever." She leaned toward Steve and lowered her voice. "Just between you and me, everyone figured that's why Danny turned around and married Rachel so quickly. Textbook rebound. Danny's parents were devastated."

"Did they stay in touch? Danny and Dylan?"

"Only through me, just because Danny and I worked out of the same precinct for a few months when we were rookies. As far as I know, they haven't set eyes on each other since the day Dylan moved out." She glanced toward the hotel lobby. "When I told Dylan that Sheree and Janie and I were going to Hawaii and that I was going to look up Danny when I got here, he asked to come along. Justin--that's my little brother--decided to keep him company, but honestly? I think Dylan came to see Danny, to see if they can start over, now that they're both single again."

Heaving a sigh, she reached again for her drink. "It would just be the most romantic thing ever, if they got back together. They're perfect for each other."

_Like hell they are_. 

"What," Steve paused to clear his throat, "what does Dylan do for a living?"

"He's a lawyer for the NHL."

_Figures_.

"You know," Steve said, "Danny's changed a lot since he moved out here to be with Grace."

"Oh, my God, Grace! She's so cute, and Dylan, he's really good with kids. I just know they're going to love each other."

No. Oh, _hell_ no.

Okay, that was it, time to set Melissa straight--except he couldn't. It would be breaking rule number three and while Steve still didn't see the point of any of the rules, the fact remained that these were Danny's wishes, and Steve would abide by them.

Steve was saved from trying to change the subject without being too obvious when his phone rang. He didn't know whether to be relieved or annoyed when he recognized the ring tone of the governor's office, but with a quick apology to Melissa, he stepped away from the table and took the call.

Two minutes later, Steve was opening his wallet and laying two twenties on the table. He made his apologies to Melissa, who'd just ordered her second mai tai, and headed toward the lobby, intent on finding Danny and letting him know that he'd been called away.

Danny and Dylan were sitting side by side on one of the lobby benches, both men leaning forward with their elbows on their knees, their bodies canted toward each other, their heads close together. It was obvious to anyone that they were in the midst of an intimate conversation, and while Steve understood that this had to be a tough situation for Danny, he was just selfish enough to wish this unexpected visit had occurred any other day but today, the day Danny himself had called the first day of their honeymoon.

Walking over to them, Steve waited until he detected a pause in their conversation, then cleared his throat to get Danny's attention. Danny immediately looked up at the sound, and seeing Steve, got to his feet and came to stand beside him.

Later, Steve would swear that Danny had left Dylan mid-sentence, but maybe that's because the first thing Danny did when he reached Steve's side was lift his hand and touch the side of Steve's mouth with his knuckle. Before Steve could react to this surprisingly intimate gesture, Danny started talking.

"You, uh, you got a little mayo there, partner." The words were commonplace, making sense of Danny's action, but Steve understood what Danny was really saying, and that was all Steve needed. He knew there was no smudge of mayonnaise on his lip but it was apparent that Danny had wanted to re-establish their connection as much as he had, even if it was in a busy hotel lobby. He smiled at Danny and Danny smiled back, then they were grinning at each other, and by the time Dylan stood up and joined them, Steve was more than ready to treat him as nothing more than an old friend of Danny's.

Until he got a good look at Dylan, that is. Throughout Melissa's explanation of his past with Danny, Steve had pictured a masculine version of her, yet Dylan Monroe turned out to be quite a bit more. He was at least as tall as Steve and as Danny made introductions and they shook hands, Steve realized that Dylan was, by any standard, a very good-looking guy. Brown wavy hair, blue eyes like his sister's, dimples when he smiled, Dylan Monroe was a lot of things that Steve was not, and Steve's relationship with Danny was just new enough that all of those things mattered.

Pleasantries over, Steve spoke to Danny. "Listen, I just got called in to work."

"Yeah?" Danny's eyes lit up. "What's up, where are we going?"

"Not us. Me. Some kind of emergency committee meeting regarding the Governor's Ball. I've been asked to sit in and give advice on security issues."

"Seriously? An emergency meeting called by party planners? Is there a sudden shortage of cocktail weenies?"

"No, the guest list has changed, there are some Chinese VIPs attending now and HPD has asked me to consult."

"Right, like how many armored vehicles do we park on the lawn, do we store the extra rounds of ammo in the coat closet or by the punch bowl, stuff like that?"

"Yeah, Danny, exactly stuff like that."

"Then they called the right person. Listen, uh," he pulled Steve aside with an apologetic look in Dylan's direction, "how long do you think this meeting will take?"

"It's a committee meeting, I could be gone for hours."

"Yeah, good point. Okay, well, if I don't hear from you by, say, five, I'll set up a diversion outside the governor's office. When you hear a loud boom, you know what do to."

"Sounds like a plan," Steve whispered, wishing the entire world would go away just long enough for him to kiss Danny. But it didn't, and Steve's wishes regarding the way the world operated were even further disregarded when Danny turned to Dylan with an expression that was more friendly than Steve thought it needed to be under the circumstances.

Then Dylan made Steve's already dim world view a little bit darker when he put his hand on Danny's shoulder and gave it an intimate squeeze.

"So does that mean you're free this afternoon?" Dylan's voice was low and, to Steve's ear, a little too proprietary.

Some day, Danny would appreciate the massive amount of self-control it cost Steve not to knock Dylan's hand off Danny's shoulder, especially since it was a little too close to the red mark Steve had lovingly worked onto the slope of Danny's neck some time during the night. Instead, Steve let his smile fade from the dopey, love-stricken version he used only for Danny into the bland, convince-me-not-to-kill-you version he gave to Dylan. 

"Yeah, sure," Danny was saying, although Steve heard the hesitation in his voice. His partner had been put in an unenviable position, since with Steve being called away and the team having no active cases, Danny really was free until Steve's meeting was over. He also didn't know that Steve had been brought up to speed by Melissa regarding his history with Dylan, so the confusion in his eyes over how to proceed was genuine.

Conceding the fact that he may need to pull out a good boyfriend card the next time he did something to piss Danny off, Steve put his hand on Danny's other shoulder but addressed Dylan.

"Would you excuse us for a moment?" Internally, he was happy that's all that actually came out of his mouth, since it didn't include the "or I'll remove your hand at the wrist if you don't let Danny go" option that finished the sentence in his head.

This time, Steve led Danny far enough away from Dylan so that he couldn't put that hand--manicured, Steve would bet--on Danny so easily. He tilted his head down and Danny turned his face toward him, their eyes meeting in perfect understanding.

"You know I have to go, right?" Steve asked.

"I know," Danny grunted. "Do you mind if I hang out with these guys for a while?"

Steve's breath hitched a little, the fact that Danny was checking in with him knocking him back to the reality that the choices they now made separately, even one like this, affected them both. Such a simple truth, yet it reminded him that he and Danny were a couple, and that precious knowledge spread a path of warmth through his heart, across his chest, and into his cheeks.

"I do," he answered truthfully. "Melissa filled me in on your history. But, listen," he continued, cutting Danny off, "I'm okay with it. Well, I'll be okay with it. Eventually. Maybe."

"Steven--"

"All right, never, but I'll work on it, that's all I can say."

Danny shook his head. "Forget what Mel told you. Long story short, I know she thinks Dylan broke my heart but that's not even close to what happened. Him showing up today is nothing but bad timing, something you and I should be pretty familiar with by now."

Putting his hands on his hips to once again stop himself from reaching out to Danny, Steve took a deep breath. "So what you're telling me is that I shouldn't be jealous that you're spending the day with someone you once cared about."

"Yes, the use of the past tense is correct." Danny glanced over his shoulder at Dylan. "I'd happily ditch Dylan to spend time with Mel, but my mother would kill me, so I'm stuck."

"Okay." Steve squeezed his bottom lip between his fingers. "Yeah, I just checked. It's not working."

"Still jealous?"

"Still jealous."

"Jesus, McGarrett," Danny muttered, "you're killing me here. This isn't how I wanted today to go, you know? You being dragged off to some cotillion committee meeting, me stuck with out of town visitors."

"I know, Danny, I know, but it's what we've got. Just promise me," Steve glanced toward the patiently waiting Dylan, "just promise me that when I'm done, you'll be there, okay? Just you. No one else. Just for me."

Danny's eyes fluttered shut as he lowered his head, hands clasped tightly together. "Just for you," he breathed. 

Steve swallowed and nodded, his eyes on the garish carpet of the hotel lobby. "Some day, I'll be ready to hear about you and Dylan, but tonight, just us. Right?"

Danny turned around until his back was to Dylan and the lobby, his eyes on the wall, arms folded over his chest, and Steve had to lean in to hear what Danny said next.

"Listen to me, and listen good. What I had with Dylan, what I felt for Dylan--not even on the same planet compared to how I feel about you, you got that?" Without turning his head, he slanted his eyes in Steve's direction. "Same thing goes for Rachel, Gabby, and anyone else who ever came before you." He looked past Steve's shoulder, then back at Steve. "Not even the same universe. You hear what I'm saying?"

Steve rubbed his hand over his mouth, unsurprised that his fingers were unsteady. Leave it to Danny to share his most personal thoughts in the middle of a crowded hotel lobby with his ex standing not twenty feet away.

And Steve loved him for it.

"Yeah, Danny." he whispered, "I hear it."

"Good." Danny turned back to him, hands now in his front pockets. "Now you, my friend, you are going to spend the next few hours in a stuffy conference room with a bunch of people arguing over where to put the flowers and what color the dinner mints should be while I will probably be showing a bunch of haoles--you see what I did there?--around some of the best tourist spots on the island. Should be a nice, quiet afternoon for both of us."

***

Except it wasn't.

The first time Steve got a break, he called Danny and got voice mail, but Danny called him right back. It was already after five and Steve was calling him because the meeting was going to stretch into dinner. If he felt bad for having to postpone their reunion, it quickly turned to all-out misery when he heard what sounded like a party going on in the background when he answered Danny's return call.

"Danny?" Steve stuck his finger in his free ear as he paced the hall outside the conference room. "What's going on?"

"Steve! How much longer are you going to be?"

"Where are you?"

"We're--hang on. No, it's Steve," Steve heard him say, though Danny's voice was muffled, "yeah, yeah, I'll ask. Steve, you still there? Are you done?"

"No, Danny, listen, it's turned into a dinner meeting and I--"

"A dinner meeting?" Suddenly Danny's voice was loud and clear, and Steve imagined Danny find a quiet space so he could yell at Steve without interruption. "What the hell can you guys still be discussing? Tell them yes on the stuffed mushrooms, no on the oysters, you'll have stormtroopers at every door, and get the hell out of there!"

Steve pinched the top of his nose. "I would if I could, but if we don't resolve all this tonight, the chairman is threatening to start up again tomorrow. I'm hoping we can iron out the rest of the details over dinner."

"Dinner? You're eating dinner with these losers?"

Damn it. Danny's disappointed tone was a lot harder to take than Danny's angry tone. "Look," Steve sighed, "maybe food will make everyone get along. I've already had to break up one fistfight, so if we can just plow through the rest of the agenda, I'm hoping we'll be done by eight."

"Eight. Yeah, okay. Eight's good, I have to have Grace back at Rachel's by seven-thirty, then I can swing by and pick you up."

"Grace? I didn't know you had Gracie tonight."

"I didn't, it just--this whole thing kind of turned into a party at Kamekona's--"

"You're at Kamekona's now?" 

"Yeah, it's close to the beach and--hey, listen, I gotta go, Grace is chasing Dylan with a water pistol--call me back when you get another break, okay?"

"Yeah, yeah, okay."

Steve leaned his forehead against the wall as he slipped his phone in his pocket. He wasn't sure if this day could get any worse, but he sure as hell wasn't going to be defeated by a committee who even now was arguing over what restaurant served the best takeout. 

His next break came two hours later, which was actually lucky for everyone else in the conference room, since Steve was about to take hostages and demand an FBI negotiator if they didn't start to make some headway. He carried his phone and a bottle of water into the hallway and dialed Danny's number, his mood already lifting since he knew he'd soon hear Danny's cranky voice once more.

Or not.

"Hello?"

Steve quickly checked his phone, verifying that he'd called Danny. "Hello, who is this?"

"Oh, hey Steve, it's Dylan Monroe."

Steve stopped, pivoted on his heel, and started walking in the opposite direction. "Dylan? Where's Danny? Why are you answering Danny's phone?"

"Oh, Danny's around here somewhere, I think he and Kono and Justin went to get some ice. Do you want me to give him a message?"

"Why are you answering his phone? He's never without his phone." _Especially when he's waiting for me to call him, damn it._

Dylan laughed, a sound that raked across Steve's already shredded nerves. "Oh, man, that was my fault. The battery on my own cell died and Danny loaned me his. Guess I forgot to give it back."

"Right. Did, uh, did you say Kono was there? Kono Kalakaua?"

"Yeah, yeah, she showed up a couple of hours ago, with her cousin. You guys are all cops together, that's so cool."

"Yeah, whatever." Steve took a sip of water, then pressed the cold bottle to his forehead. "Tell Danny I'm still running late and ask him to call me back as soon as he can. Can you do that?"

"Sure, no problem."

"And tell him--"

The call was disconnected and Steve nearly growled in frustration. Somewhere in Honolulu there was a party going on where the love of his life was getting hit on by an old flame, and Steve had to go back into a conference room and try and convince seven other people that no, they couldn't put flowers on the metal detector, no matter how badly that metal detector screwed up their color scheme.

When his phone vibrated in the middle of an argument over whether or not the security detail should be wearing color-coordinated boutonnieres, Steve didn't even bother to apologize as he left the room. He'd officially run out of patience with these people and all he could think of was Danny on the other line, telling Steve he was on the way to get him, and then the two of them could put this day behind them and get back to their honeymoon. With any luck, he'd convince Danny to stop at the store on the way to Steve's so that they could spend the next day together without ever leaving the house.

But the caller ID told him it was Kono calling, not Danny, and Steve tried to keep his disappointment out of his voice as he answered the call.

"Hey, Kono, what's up?"

"You need to get to the ER right away, Steve. Danny's been hurt."

***

"Listen to me, I'm fine, it's just a scratch, don't come to the hospital, I'll be out--"

"I'm pulling into the parking lot right now."

The sigh Steve heard over the phone was accompanied by Steve's vision of Danny rubbing his eyes, the perfect picture of annoyance. "Of course you are, because it's not like you overreact to these things or anything. Do me a favor, just park the truck and wait for me. I should be cut loose in a few minutes."

"No," Steve climbed out of the truck and slammed the door, "I'm not waiting in the parking lot for you, I'm coming to get you and then we're going home."

"You don't have to go back to the meeting? They actually okayed hand grenades as party favors? Damn, I underestimated your powers of persuasion."

Steve switched the cell to his other ear. "They're on their own. I told them if they didn't solve their issues tonight, I was going to institute full cavity searches for every guest attending and call it a day."

"Nice, Steven, very diplomatic. Hey, listen, something I need to tell you--"

"Can it wait? I'm almost to the ER, I'll see you in about ten seconds."

"Yeah, well, it's a little bit of a zoo here right now, so don't freak out when you get here, okay?"

"Danny, why would I--"

Steve stopped in his tracks as he entered the waiting room next to the ER. The place was packed but as he looked around, he seemed to recognize way too many faces. Slowly lowering his phone, he scanned the crowd until his gaze fell on Chin, who was leaning up against the far wall next to Malia. Chin immediately straightened up and came to Steve's side, Malia following him.

"Hey, boss. Glad you could join the party."

Steve was still surveying the room, a frown between his eyes. "What the hell is going on? Why are all these people here?"

"Okay," Chin sighed, "here's what happened. Danny was showing his friends around and ended up at Kamekona's, then Kono and I stopped to grab a bite to eat. The girls over there--you've met Melissa, right?--hooked up with some guys and things kind of escalated from there." Chin slid his arm around Malia's waist and grinned at Steve. "Kono and I made a couple calls and the next thing you know, we're having an impromptu luau."

"Well, I wasn't invited," Malia laughed, "I'm actually on duty, but Chin called me and told me what happened, so I came down to check on Danny." She put her hand on Steve's arm. "He really is okay, Steve."

"I know," Steve muttered. He was still looking around the room, dismissing the faces he didn't know. He saw Kono, Charlie, and Kamekona gathered in one corner, Melissa and her friends on the couch and apparently ignoring the guys they'd brought along in favor of Max, who was holding court from the center cushion. That accounted for everyone--or so Steve hoped--but there was someone missing, and given the current situation, there was only one place that son of a bitch someone could be.

Steve had already been assured--repeatedly--that Danny was okay. It'd been a couple of dumb kids who'd decided that the party was easy pickings and had tried to steal the purse of one of Melissa's friends, but Danny had been on to them almost immediately. He and Kono had given chase, easily capturing the two idiots, but one of the idiots had a knife and had taken a slice out of Danny's left arm, just above the elbow. Danny hadn't even wanted to get it looked at, but cooler heads--namely Chin and Kono--had prevailed. That hadn't stopped the party from continuing on to the hospital, although judging from the expression of the admitting nurses on the other side of the partition, they'd be glad when the crowd cleared out.

There was only one thing Steve needed right now, and that was to see Danny. All the reassurances in the world wouldn't be enough and as he gave Chin a quick nod, he started moving toward the corridor that would lead him to the exam rooms. He'd made it only a few feet when Danny walked out, Dylan by his side. Danny acknowledged the cheer that went up from the crowd with a regal wave of his right hand but hadn't seen Steve yet, so Steve had a moment to make his own assessment of his partner. 

He looked fine, though Steve had to swallow the lump in his throat as he took in the rust-colored stains scattered on the front of Danny's blue shirt. The left sleeve of that shirt had been cut off at the shoulder, and around Danny's upper arm was a bright white bandage. There was a smile on his face as he greeted the people closest to him, but Steve could see that he was tired and pale. He could also see that Dylan had his hand once more on Danny's shoulder, acting for all the world like he thought he belonged there. 

Steve could feel his already frayed temper begin to snap. He wasn't aware that Chin had come up beside him until he felt a nudge against his arm.

"Do you think we should call Gabby?" Chin muttered. "Danny looks like he could use a little TLC right about now."

" _No!_ "

That single word, sounding more like a roar than Steve had intended, brought the room to a standstill and Danny's eyes straight to his. Steve held out his arms from his sides, an unconscious gesture of frustration and futility. He couldn't say out loud how much he hated that Danny had been hurt, hated that Chin had thought of Gabby to comfort Danny instead of knowing that was Steve's place and most of all, hated how Dylan fucking Monroe still had his fucking hand on Danny's shoulder.

But he also couldn't stop what he felt from showing in his eyes, and Danny, as usual, read him perfectly. With a murmured word only Dylan could hear, Danny took a step to his right and when Dylan didn't seem to get a clue, he physically removed Dylan's hand from his shoulder. He looked back at Steve and then, with an indulgent shake of his head and a glance toward heaven, addressed the crowd.

"All right, all right, thanks for coming down here, but I think this party's over." He held up his right hand to quiet the moans of disappointment before continuing. "But before we call it a night, I believe Steve has something he wants to share with all of you."

Steve knew everyone was looking at him, but he didn't care. All he saw was Danny.

_Are you sure?_ He didn't actually say the words, but Danny heard them anyway. 

"Rule number three is officially history." Danny gave Steve a two-fingered salute. "Go for it."

"Great." Steve rubbed his hands together, his heart beginning to race as everyone turned his way. This was important, for both of them, and he needed to get it right. "Well, like Danny said, it's late and we need to clear out of here, so I'll make it quick. Danny is coming home with me tonight. Oh," he looked directly at Dylan, "and every other night, for the rest of our lives."

Steve's statement was received by total silence at first, until Max spoke up from his position on the couch. 

"Is this news? How is this different?" He looked over his shoulder at Kono, who was covering a grin with her palm. "What did I miss?"

"Uh," Chin pointed at Danny, then at Steve, then back at Danny, "does that actually mean what I think it means?"

"Steve proposed, I accepted, end of story." Danny turned to Dylan and held out his hand. "Enjoy the rest of your stay on the islands."

Dylan, to Steve's surprise, seemed to take his dismissal with good grace, although Steve could've done without the mischievous look he got just before giving Danny a loud, smacking kiss on the cheek. There was a flurry of goodbyes as Melissa and the rest of her friends cleared out, leaving everyone else to gather around Danny and Steve, who had finally made their way to each other in the middle of the waiting room.

"Hey, hold on a minute." Steve scowled over at Kono, who was now openly laughing at something Malia was whispering in her ear, "that's not how I remember it, you know." Looking back at Danny, Steve crossed his arms, one eyebrow raised. "Me proposing to you."

Danny swirled his finger near his own temple. "Oh, see, that's because you've had too many conks on the head, you don't remember things right anymore. I, however, have perfect recall. Well, almost perfect, and I distinctly remember you were the one who--"

"Damn it, Danny--"

"There, see? You said it again! I'm telling you, a tattoo right across your knuckles would be a real time saver--"

That's when rule number two was broken. With a muttered "Oh, screw it," Steve framed Danny's face between his hands and kissed him, and not just a quick peck. No, Steve wanted to make sure that his meaning was not misunderstood, just in case anyone watching thought that Steve meant Danny would be sleeping on his couch for the next fifty years and not in his bed.

For his part, Danny not only didn't seem to mind that Steve had broken two rules in less than five minutes, he was actively taking part in this flagrant violation. Though his injured left arm remained at his side, he curled the fingers of his right hand into the fabric of Steve's shirt and held him close until the kiss broke, and even then he didn't let go as Steve pressed his forehead to Danny's, both of them shaking with breathless laughter.

The sound of applause brought them back down to earth, and Steve looked up to see Chin watching them with wide eyes as he cleared his throat.

"So, gentlemen," Chin said, "uh, I guess that clears up a lot things, so thank you for that. And, um, Kono and I will see you at the office--"

"Tuesday," Steve said. He looked at Danny and was pretty sure that his lovesick expression was back, because Danny's tired eyes had brightened up as though someone had just handed him the world. "Tuesday's good."

***

"Don't fuss."

"I'm not fussing, I'm field dressing."

"It's fine, put a Band-Aid on it and let's get back into bed." Steve felt a soft whack to the side of his head. "And we are not in the field, Steven, so unless you're expecting a military coup in our bedroom some time in the next couple of hours, this can wait until morning."

Steve sighed. "Just two more minutes, okay? Hand me the scissors."

"Here."

"Thanks. I want to meet your parents."

"Uh, right now?"

Steve didn't raise his eyes from his task, even though he knew Danny was staring at him. "No, Danny, not right this second, but soon. Maybe you and I could fly back to New Jersey, take Grace with us, have a real vacation." He glanced up at Danny through his lashes. "Unless you don't think it's a good idea?"

Danny's mouth opened and closed twice before he answered. "No, I mean, yes, I think it's a good idea. I think it's a _great_ idea, I'm just surprised you thought of it first. That reminds me--ouch!"

"Sorry. What reminds you?"

"Grace. I want to tell her about us as soon as possible."

"Think she'll be all right with it?"

"You kidding? She'll be ecstatic, she thinks her Uncle Steve is the best thing since sliced pineapple, you know that." Steve smiled, but that smile faded when Danny put a finger beneath his chin so that he would look Danny in the eye. "What's with this sudden desire to meet the in-laws?"

Steve thought about prevaricating, pointing out that it was a logical step in their relationship, but he didn't want anything about this life he was about to build with Danny to be based on even a partial truth.

"Aside from the fact that I can't wait to hear more stories about you from your family, Melissa said your parents really liked Dylan. They probably liked Rachel, too."

"Yes, they did, but what does that have to do with you? Ah, wait, I get it. You want to subject them to the old McGarrett charm and win them over."

"Something like that."

"Forget about it, babe, you don't have to worry about a thing. They know all about you."

"They do? And you think they'll still want to meet me?"

"Yes, for two reasons. One, because they already know you're important to me and two, throwing a party to show off their new son-in-law who happens to be a big shot Navy commander will make them the talk of the neighborhood for months. Between that and your bubbly personality, you can't lose."

"No pressure there." Steve chewed his bottom lip to fight off the huge grin that wanted to break out. How could everything be so easy with Danny and so hard at the same time? Steve had no idea, but he was looking forward to spending the rest of his life trying to solve that riddle.

It only took Steve a few seconds more to finish re-wrapping Danny's stitched-up arm, but Danny's protestations aside, Steve knew it was something that needed to be done or he wouldn't be able to sleep. He'd already convinced Danny to take a couple of aspirin since he knew the cut had to be sore, so by the time he swept up the first aid kit and set it aside, he was satisfied that Danny was as comfortable as he could be, under the circumstances.

And really, it was Danny's fault that the bandage had to be replaced anyway. Steve would've been fine with leaving it alone until morning if it had stayed in place, but Danny had decided that as soon as they walked into Steve's house they were going to make up for all the time they'd lost to ex-boyfriends, party committees, and punks with knives. If Steve had any problems with this plan--he didn't, only his concern for Danny's injury giving him pause--Danny overrode his protests with kisses that had Steve seeing stars before the front door had even shut behind them.

If their first night together had been about the shaky, sometimes awkward tenderness of new love finally expressing itself physically, this night was all about the certainty that they belonged together and that nothing and no one would change that. There was no questioning the trust between them that allowed them to ask for, take, and give pleasure, and in the time it took them get upstairs and undressed, the rest of the world, including handsome out-of-towners named Dylan, had been obliterated from Steve's memory.

It wasn't until hours later that Steve had discovered that the gauze covering Danny's stitched arm had come loose in places, revealing about half an inch of red, tender flesh crossed by medical thread. His head on Danny's chest, he'd been idly stroking his fingers along Danny's arm when he came across a frayed edge of gauze, and as much as he hated to disturb a warm, snoozing Danny or get out of bed himself, Steve rolled over, stood up, and got to work.

With Danny now fixed up to Steve's satisfaction, they resettled beneath the covers with the lights off, this time with Danny curled around Steve, his head on Steve's shoulder and their legs entwined. 

"That was quite a day," Danny murmured.

"Yeah." Steve closed his eyes and tightened his arm around Danny's shoulders. "Dylan seems nice."

That earned him a pinch to the rib cage. "Don't give me that, you killed him about twenty different ways in your head, admit it."

"Whatever," Steve shrugged. "Maybe I did wonder if there was something in the trunk of the Camaro that would come in handy if he got out of line, but c'mon, you have to admit, I behaved."

"Yes, yes, you did, and for that, you will be allowed to break rule number one, the no sex in the office rule, in case you've forgotten. At the appropriate moment, of course."

"Yeah, about that." Steve shifted his hips to get more comfortable. "What was up with these rules in the first place? I don't get it."

Danny was silent for a few minutes, and Steve wondered if he'd fallen asleep before he finally spoke up.

"You know what I hated most about you when we first met?"

"Wait, there was something you _hated_ about me?"

"Think about it. What did you do, like, fifty times in the first twenty-four hours of our relationship? And what do you continue you to do, no matter how many times I ask you not to?"

Steve rubbed at his forehead with the thumb of his free hand, recalling those first, crazy hours as he and Danny raced all over the island working his father's murder and trying not to kill each other. Then came the days and weeks after as they learned to work together, Danny had been so uptight, so frustrated every time Steve bent or broke a rule--

"Yeah, okay," he conceded, "sometimes I don't follow the rules--"

"Don't follow the rules? Excuse me? Sometimes? Admit it, when it comes to rules you don't like, your number one favorite thing to do, bar none, is break them. Obliterate them. Smash them into teeny, tiny pieces."

Could it be that simple? Steve thought back to the exhilaration he'd felt when Danny had given him the go ahead to announce they were together. Doing so in front of all their friends and a group of strangers hadn't been what he'd had in mind, but his sense of satisfaction had been genuine. And, hell, breaking rule number two, the one about public affection, that one was doomed from the start, and Steve had demolished that rule without a second thought.

"So," Steve said slowly, blinking up into the darkness, "let me get this straight. You made up these rules just because you thought that I'd enjoy breaking them?"

"Very good." Danny muffled his yawn against Steve's chest, snuggling closer. "You win first prize. Oh, wait, you already did. Me."

Steve was still trying to wrap his head around what Danny had just confessed, but was swiftly realizing that he would never understand Danny's thought processes. His next thought was that he really, really liked the idea of breaking Danny's arbitrary rules and God help him, he actually hoped Danny had more of them--a lot more of them.

"Don't worry," came a sleepy voice from near his shoulder, "Got a million more rules in mind for you to blow to smithereens. Probably take a lifetime to get through them all."

_A lifetime._.

"I like the sound of that," Steve murmured.

"Thought you would. Now go to sleep. That is not a rule, Steven, that is an order. Note the difference for future reference."

"Smart ass."

"Neanderthal."

"Danno?"

"What now?"

"Love you."

A smug, contented sigh brushed against Steve's cheek. "Love you, too."


End file.
